Profit Sourcery

By Si Martin

Why you’re going to want to use Amazon Marketplace

So you know you can sell your old stuff on eBay, but did you know you can sell old andnew things on Amazon?

Amazon has a huge online marketplace for people to sell through, which includes everyone from big businesses to individuals selling a few bits here and there.

In the words of Notorious B.I.G.: “If ya don’t know, now ya know.”

Selling on Amazon is a great way to get started in the online selling game, and here’s a few reasons why:

You can let Amazon do the hard work for you.
Amazon offers a service called Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) where you can send your stock to Amazon’s warehouse and let them store it all for you until someone buys from your Amazon store. So you don’t need storage space to keep your products in as you wait for them to sell (having a house stacked full of products grows quite thin quite quickly).

Amazon FBA doesn’t just store your products though, it ships them out to the customer as soon as they’ve ordered. Once Amazon has shipped out the order, they will also take care of any customer service issues that may arise. So you can make the most of the world class distribution and customer services that Amazon offers, to keep your customers happy, which should always be a top priority.

Amazon do a pretty good job of describing it:

With Amazon Marketplace, you won’t have to worry about creating a new item listing like you would on eBay.

The listing is (usually) already there

You don’t need to be a super slick salesperson who writes an amazing description to convince someone to buy your product to run a successful Amazon business. The description is already written for you. You don’t need to be a world class photographer to snap a picture of your product to make people want it. The photo is already there for you.

In most cases, if you want to list a product for sale, all you have to do is find the product on Amazon and click “Sell yours here”. Once you’ve filled in a few details, you’ll be listed alongside all the other sellers for that product, and ready to get some customers.

It’s great that you can list your products easily on Amazon, but will customers order from you? Or just the big sellers? Well, the good news is:

Even new sellers get exposure through Amazon

More often than not, there will be more than one seller selling the same product on Amazon. Rather than having endless pages of the same product from different sellers, all sellers list on the same product page (see above) so there’s no fight to get to the top of search results.

Amazon have a “Buy Box” which, if you’ve ever bought on Amazon, you’ve already used. The Buy Box is simply the button that you click to add a product to your shopping basket. The sale is awarded to the seller that’s “won” the Buy Box. Amazon rotates which seller has the Buy Box regularly, so that even newcomers have a chance to win a sale, not just the biggest companies.

When you’re starting up any business, the upfront costs can be offputting. But with Amazon,you don’t have to pay to list your products.

Unlike some other online marketplaces, it won’t cost you anything to put a product listing on Amazon. This means if the product doesn’t end up selling, then you’ve not lost money trying to sell it.

There are fees associated with Amazon, however – to be a seller, you either pay a monthly subscription, or a small fee per sale (but only once the sale is made). If you choose to use FBA, then there are other costs associated with this service as well. You can see all the fees and decide which pricing structure best suits you: here.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits for new online sellers is that you get to harness the credibility and reputation of Amazon’s brand.

When a customer buys a product from Amazon, they don’t necessarily realise they’re buying from you. The Amazon brand and logo represents a hugely successful, customer centric, global company with a great reputation for providing good service. As a user, you see the Amazon storefront, and the Amazon logo when you click on the Buy Box to put a product in your basket. Which means customers will be making the connection between the branding and the great shopping experience. That sort of credibility would take you years to build on your own.

All that you have to do then is to meet the high expectations that customers are going to have from Amazon! Packing your orders and dispatching them as soon as possible, being on the ball with customer services, and offering excellent value for money. That’s how Amazon became so successful, and if you’re going to follow anyone’s example, Amazon are a great starting point.

If you want to know what or howto sell on Amazon, then be sure to take a look at our new software product: www.profitsourcery.com